Editor's
Note:
World Affairs Councils in the United States are a group of about 87 non-profit, non-partisan global awareness education organizations open to all who wish to join. The World Affairs Council system has 484,000 participants and 28 affiliated organizations. It reaches over 20 million people each year through its 2,500 events, radio, TV, and school programs.
The national office organizes an annual conference, leadership missions overseas, a national speaker referral system, international speaker exchanges, people-to-people diplomacy missions, educational workshops, book tours, subscription discounts, operations workshops and papers, and a variety of national publications. It also runs nationwide program series such as Congressional Town Meetings, World Bank Town Meetings, State Department Town meetings, and series focusing on specific issues and regions of the world.
The purposes of the World Affairs Councils of America's (WACA) leadership missions are "to get to know the people, the issues, and the problems of the city, the country, or the organization first-hand and to establish a much greater connection between the country and a well-informed and influential part of the American public." The trips are not for sightseeing but seek to develop better programs at the local council level through meetings and discussions that foster improved knowledge of the visited country. The intended results are for better information that can be channeled "through more speaker invitations, radio and television programs, council publications, curriculum materials, teachers' workshops, business roundtables, conferences, and travel programs." WACA prides itself on its independence and wishes to confront the world's issues directly, not through the prisms of official foreign policy, interest group ideology, or the national media. The movement strongly believes strongly in people-to-people diplomacy and is one of the preeminent organizations in the United States in that field.
A WACA leadership mission recently visited Saudi Arabia for meetings and discussions with government officials, business people, educators and others about developments in the Kingdom. Vice Chairman of WACA's National Board Alex Lari was among the leaders participating in the visit and before he departed Saudi Arabia he spoke briefly with SUSRIS about his observations.
[This is the second interview in a series on the WACA leadership mission to Saudi Arabia.
Other items are provided in a SUSRIS Special Section that includes interviews and photos of the trip --
click
for link.]
SUSRIS
EXCLUSIVE
Saudi Arabia Up Close:
A Conversation with Alex Lari
SUSRIS:
Thank you for taking time to talk about your experience in Saudi Arabia as you complete a visit with a leadership delegation from the
World Affairs Councils of
America. Can you share your impressions of your weeklong visit to the Kingdom to sites and meetings in Jeddah and Riyadh.
 Mr. Alex Lari: I think the Saudis are on the right track in their modernization efforts. I think the fact that they are investing a huge amount of money in human resources is amazing. They have all the right ideas.
What they are doing with the so-called "mega cities" is very, very ambitious. They are working with some very smart people and they are getting the infrastructure built with cheap labor. I was very impressed with what we saw at places like the King Abdullah Economic City site.
|
SUSRIS: What preconceptions about life in Saudi Arabia before your visit were changed by your first hand experiences.
Lari: I was struck by the ability of people to criticize the government, not the King, but the government. That has been happening in the last few years in Kuwait -- one of the more progressive countries in this area. I think that is a positive development for Saudi Arabia.
The fact that a significant portion of the people in charge are American educated -- that is a very, very positive aspect. They are very good friends of the United States, you saw that in every one of the meetings we had.
I would say many of the Saudis I talked to resent the fact that America is not doing much business in this country. Much of business is conducted with Europeans and other countries. The infrastructure.. ..I was very impressed by the highways and bridges that have been built, and by how they developed their cities. It's all very impressive, the amount of investment in infrastructure.
SUSRIS: What would you tell American business people in the states who are missing the action?
Lari: I'd say come out here.
SUSRIS: What are they missing?
Lari: What they are missing is that Saudi Arabia is one of the wealthiest countries in the Middle East and they could use American technology. I think a lot of the high tech people are here - Oracle, Microsoft, they're here. They are very much involved.
Some of the major companies in the oil segment are here, but the problem is with the people getting involved in all the segments being developed -- power plants and those types of projects, water resources things of that nature. The Americans are just missing what is happening in this country.
SUSRIS: Any last messages for Americans about the economy in Saudi Arabia.
Lari: I thought everything I saw here was positive. I think the Saudis are on the right track. I was impressed.
Related Material:
